Chapter 42
“Jimmy, get us a helicopter out of here. We’ll be between Whiffen Spit and the Prestige. We’ll be ready in two minutes, so as fast as possible. Yeah, I know they’re a ways out. Just do your best. Thanks, Jimmy.” Overclock stood on a few driftwood logs to watch the incoming Magical Girl.
I watched, too, from the path. “Bentley, what’s the rest of the mission like?”
“You’re heading back to SHOCKS with the Magical Girl. Whoever she is, she’s been through hell, and she’s gonna need some serious counseling. We’re shuffling people around so she can get Kyle.”
“Alright. Thanks, Bentley.” I was looking forward to this mission being over.
“Hey, girls?” Li Mei said from a bit further down the path. “Come here. Does it look like she’s carrying a weapon?”
I squinted. If I scrunched up my eyes just a bit, it did. But it wasn’t a war hammer or swords, like Overclock or Li Mei. Whatever it was, she was spinning it…kind of like the meteor hammer Cobra Kyra had used, but more…flashy. It caught the sun across its whole length.
“Is that an Urumi?” Overclock asked. I looked at her for an explanation, but she squinted. Then her eyes got bigger.
As I looked at the incoming Magical Girl, I realized why.
Her skirt and blazer both shone white in the sun—but not the white of my two teammates. No, this was Mack plating.
Li Mei drew her swords and ran at the Magical Girl. Before she could get close enough to strike, the Mack whipped her long, thin blade around. It whistled through the air and snapped toward Li Mei’s face. Li Mei stopped charging and started blocking and dodging instead as the urumi thrashed the dirt path and clattered against her two swords.
“Luciole, we’re labeling this a Type Forty-Two Mack. Abilities unknown, strengths and weaknesses unknown, Class unknown. SHOCKS is working on profiling and intel as we speak, but the only way to know what it can do is to fight it,” Bentley said, an edge in his voice cutting through his usual tone.
“Alright, please tell me we have backup coming?” I tried to find a place to Mana Surge that wouldn’t ruin Li Mei’s concentration. Whatever the Mack could do, it wouldn’t last long against all of us—not without its armor. But it moved to Li Mei’s far side, almost like it knew what I wanted.
The urumi flashed out before bouncing off a pink shield that faded almost as soon as it popped into being. Sam looked exhausted; she’d shielded everyone on our run in and had to be almost out of mana. She pulled her crossbow and started loading another magazine into it.
Overclock snuck around the Mack’s back, trying to flank, but whenever she strayed too close, the urumi met her.
At last, Li Mei had to disengage. She took a few steps back, staring at the chips missing from her blades. “What the hell are you?”
The Mack stared at her and cocked its head. Then it started talking. “Model 54376 Combat Unit, Nanite-Enhanced. I am the end and the beginning, to borrow from one of your books. I am you, but better.”
“Feu-Follet!” Everyone had gotten clear, and I blasted the Mack Magical Girl with a torrent of light. But deep within the beam, something glowed orange. When the blast stopped, I saw what it was. A glowing orange energy shield as tall as me slid back into the Mack’s arm.
The urumi flashed out toward me in an arc. I stumbled back away from it, but not fast enough. The blade bored through my shoulder, but Fogform activated, and the blade cut through my incorporeal body and into the dirt below me. The second loop around sliced into my shoulder, then another pink shield blocked the third.
The Magical Girl huffed. Then she pointed toward Sam. “Flame Arrows!”
Sam got a shield up for the first three fiery bolts, but the fourth, fifth, and sixth slammed into her, dropping her in one volley. She didn’t even scream. She just hit the ground, skirt and blazer smoldering.
I didn’t have time to check on her. I had to do something to shift the fighting in our favor before the Mack took someone else out.
Overclock started swinging her hammer. It slammed into the Mack with a satisfying thud. As the machine spun, it activated thrusters on its feet and hopped into the air.
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“God dammit, I hate fliers!” Overclock yelled. She started dodging and weaving as the Magical Girl android blasted away with spells.
“Luciole, it’s all you for a bit. That body should only have fuel for a few seconds of flight. Omega Lily is engaging Class Four Macks at an Emergence near Shirley. They’re a few minutes from disengaging, then five minutes flight over.”
“Got it!” We couldn’t wait six or eight minutes for Omega Lily. We had to win now.
As the Mack hammered Li Mei and Overclock with spells, I dashed a few yards away. I had a few Moonrays and Arcing Rays left and wanted a good angle to make the most of them.
My boots skidded to a stop in the dirt path, and I pointed toward the hovering android. “Moonray! Arcing Ray!” Two beams burst into the air. The first one zipped over its shoulder. The second one clipped a foot.
The Mack hovered shakily for a moment as its thruster popped and sputtered. Then it kicked back on. “Flame Arrows!”
I ducked and dodged, but still, a few arrows caught me. The health bar Bentley’d installed dipped past 25%; I’d taken damage from the Type Ones in the basement, the urumi, and now three flaming arrows. But somehow, I was still running.
For how long, I didn’t know. I regretted not choosing the Phoenix class.
The Mack fired a few more bolts toward Li Mei, who managed to parry one and dodge most of the rest. Then, its boots sputtered, and it dipped gracefully toward the ground.
As it landed, I cupped my hands and yelled, “Feu-Follet!” The light washed over it again, with the same familiar orange glow. But this time, as soon as it lowered its shield, I fired a second Mana Surge. My stomach growled in protest—my mana was running low.
This one caught it off-guard. It bathed in light for a full second before it got the shield back up, and even then, the orange shook and shivered. When it stopped, the Mack’s armor was pitted and scoured by the light.
Overclock dashed in with her gigantic war hammer. It crashed into the android, and the armor shattered underneath it this time. The Mack-plate skirt half-disintegrated, revealing servos and pneumatics underneath.
“Vaporizing Blast!”
The black ray cut into Overclock’s stomach. Unlike Sam, she screamed as she hit the ground. And, also unlike Sam, she kept moving, even if it was only to drag herself away from the Mack.
The android pulled an axe from nowhere. It vibrated in its hands as it swung through the air.
“Acti…activating Overclock!”
The Mack froze. So did Overclock. I didn’t know how long Li Mei and I had a window, but we had to take advantage of it. “Will-o’-the-Wisp! Will-o’-the-Wisp! Blazing Light! Arcing Ray!” My spells crashed into the Type Forty-Two. Li Mei activated her Mana Surge, groaning in pain as she fell below zero mana.
When the android moved again, its axe-wielding arm fell to the ground next to Overclock, and its plating lay torn and shattered. The flaming orbs I’d summoned rolled along the ground, crashing into its legs and covering its body in ethereal blue fire. It wobbled, reaching for its axe.
Then Li Mei’s sword cut through its exposed leg pneumatics, and it crashed to the ground. I fired my last Blazing Light into it and watched as the flames engulfed its remaining plating. Then its burning red eyes slowly faded dimmer and dimmer.
Li Mei headed toward Sam, and I dropped to my knees beside Overclock. Shockingly, she was still breathing. “Bentley, full medical kit! QuickClot, HemoTonic, and BloodSeal. WoundWall, too, if I have the mana!”
As the items solidified, Li Mei knelt beside me. She shook her head but didn’t say anything. I handed her the easy-cheese spray. “Inside the wound, then jam the Hemo-Tonic into a big muscle. Ass or leg!”
Bentley started talking. “Luciole, the mission still stands. If anything, it’s more important than ever. No one at SHOCKS has seen anything like this, and if its processing core is intact, we need it.”
“Shut up unless you know how long we have to wait,” I yelled.
“Two minutes on the helicopter, one on the strike team. Luciole, no Macks have ever talked before.”
I started to scream at Bentley again, then stopped. I had more important things to do than yell at an Operator with no sense of time and place. James had been better in every way.
Overclock’s bleeding stopped as the WoundWall and Easy-Cheese spray did their jobs. When we’d done our best, Li Mei slumped down, almost a puppet with no strings. She glared at the Mack. “It killed Sam.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do. I’d barely known Sam and a lot of the time I’d known her, she’d been on Candice’s side, but she’d still been a teammate, and…we’d won. But it felt hollow. I reached out to touch Li Mei’s shoulder, then realized my mistake too late. Li Mei didn’t want to be touched and definitely wouldn’t want it right now.
“Fuck you, Luciole! Fuck SHOCKs, and fuck that stupid Mack!” She jerked away from me, then stomped to the machine’s wrecked body and started kicking it and screaming.
I turned away to watch a quartet of Magical Girls fly over us. One dipped low enough to make sure we were safe. Then they set up above the last Type Twenty-One on Whiffen Spit and combo’d it down, just like they had the Type Thirty-Two earlier. Weak spots, initial hit, heavy impact, done. They vaporized a few Class 1 and 2 Macks that remained on the spit, then moved on, flying east.
I started to stand up. Then I heard a pair of grating words behind me.
“Vaporizing Blast!”
Li Mei screamed, and wrecked pneumatics screeched.